Too bad, Minecraft just made me respect java a little bit!
Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#32What is wrong with http://harmony.apache.org/ ?
It is a from scratch implementation of the JVM. And is backed by IBM AFAIK.
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
My personal anecdotal experience from using it on Ubuntu is that Iced Tea isn't as reliable or compatible with Java code as the Sun java. Maybe that's changed recently?
Definitely not true in my experience. The only difference I've noticed is that the Sun one forces you to manually download some jars in order to get strong crypto because of some outdated US legal BS, while openJDK bundles them.
The last time I used the openJDK on ubuntu was version 9.10 and then JGoodies LaF looked abysmal. Well, by abysmal I mean that the openJDK inserted spacing between most components and the sun JDK looked consistent with the rendering on Windows and AIX.
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#34I'm surprised that IcedTea ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icedtea ) has not been mentioned yet. From the link: "On June 2008, it was announced that IcedTea6 (as the packaged version of OpenJDK on Fedora 9) has passed the Technology Compatibility Kit tests and can claim to be a fully compatible Java 6 implementation." I'm not a Java developer -- is there something about the project that makes it less appealing than a…
My personal anecdotal experience from using it on Ubuntu is that Iced Tea isn't as reliable or compatible with Java code as the Sun java. Maybe that's changed recently?
That was true when it first came out; the version shipped with Ubuntu was the 1.6.0_0 version of Iced Tea, which had all sorts of problems. The latest version is fine.
For anyone who's curious, OpenJDK was (if I recall correctly) originally a fork of the early JDK7 code line, but with everything JDK7-specific stripped out. Originally it was fairly buggy, so the initial Iced Tea builds of Open JDK6 weren't really usable for production work, but since Open JDK6 was released most of the bug fixes that have gone into the official JDK6 have also been ported to OpenJDK6, so the current version is now fairly stable and should be comparable in quality to the official JDK.
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#35Why fork? Just go with Scala! http://www.scala-lang.org/
Why the downvotes? That's a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
Java is attractive because it's mostly sane, and it's backed by The Enterprise in a big way. Sure, if Google, RedHat, HP and IBM gets behind a fork, it could work - but I can't really see what RH and HP has to gain there. They both need to keep support for Oracle Java to stay relevant. IBMs primary interest in Java is consulting - and the consulting-money going to stay with Oracle Java. Google has a lot of stuff in Java, but they're by no means married to it, except for Android/Dalvik. I'd bet they're more keen to push something like Go (or even Scala for that matter).
But without the enterprise backing, Java is just a pretty dated language. Scala, on the other hand, is a very modern language by most measures, and it will integrate seamlessly with your Java legacy stuff.
Sure, it doesn't solve the problem of depending on the JVM, but if Oracle kills Dalvik, getting a good open source drop-in replacement to the JVM is not going to happen. If not, well, then we have Dalvik :)
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#36Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you start with existing GPL code from Oracle, then you have an implicit patent license. But your code has to be under the GPL. If you meet the "Technology Compatibility Kit", then you're an official Java and have a license. Unfortunately Sun was not in the habit of giving access to the TCK to people who were doing things they did not like with Java, and there is no reason to believe that Oracle will be more genero…
So implementing the JVM under the GPL is legal and patent free? A group of companies could get behind an independent JVM already in progress, refine it and back it, without Oracle interference?
No, you only get patent protection if you use Oracle's GPL code (OpenJDK). If you write your own (e.g. GCJ, Kaffe) there's less protection.
Re: Java as we know it is over. Time to fork?
#38What is wrong with http://harmony.apache.org/ ? It is a from scratch implementation of the JVM. And is backed by IBM AFAIK.
What's wrong is that Oracle won't (ever) allow Harmony to be called Java Compatible™, even though it is.